Help us plan our England and Ireland trip in October

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
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Finally retiring in June, and this will be our first long vacation

We’ve been to London before but haven’t explored much of England beyond that. This will also be our first time in Ireland. I just started planning today, so the itinerary is still wide open, but here’s our rough outline:

England & Ireland Itinerary (10/8 - 11/4)

10/8 - 10/11: London

  • Staying at L’Oscar London (Amex Platinum includes breakfast).
  • Looking for lunch and dinner recommendations. We love fine dining, but MB prefers à la carte over long, multi-course Michelin experiences.

10/11 - 10/15: Lake District

  • Train to Lake District, then renting a car.
  • Focus: hiking, exploring small towns.

10/15 - 10/18: Bath & The Cotswolds

  • Train or drive to Bath, +/- renting a car.
  • Interests: hiking, bookstores, and local fare.

10/19 - 10/24: Cornwall

  • Train to Cornwall.
  • Interests: coastal hikes, bookstores.

10/24 - 10/27: Dublin (Flying from Newquay)

  • Potential key spots: Trinity College, Marsh’s Library, Howth Cliff Walk.

10/28 - 10/31: West of Ireland (Ashford Castle, others)

  • Driving to Ashford Castle. We’ll stay there
  • Activities: hiking in Connemara National Park, exploring Galway, Cliffs of Moher.

11/1 - 11/4: Return to England

  • Possibly staying near Heathrow in a restored tavern inn before flying home.

Looking for:

  • Fine dining recommendations that offer à la carte options.
  • Any must-visit spots in these regions.
  • General travel tips if you’ve been to these areas.

Would love to hear any thoughts or recommendations from those who have traveled here!

Cheers,
Warren

edited to change the order at Ian’s suggestion

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I presume Cornwall also includes car rental (public transport not great there)

There’s some backtracking, which you might want to avoid by re-ordering London - Lake district - Bath - Cornwall, and in doing so, may open up the idea of having the same hire car from Lake district to Bath to Cornwall. It will probably be notably cheaper, but if you want to avoid boring motorway driving, I’d understand.

Some super hiking in all your choices, and notably different in each, so that’s super. You’ll also see differences in local foods, most especially so in Cornwall with its excellent seafood and speciality of pasties (which are lovely on a quiet / cooler day at the beach)

Assuming Newquay to Dublin is Ryanair (or other similar budget airline), factor in the extra baggage costs. Dublin airport has plenty of bus / coaches serving the city direct frequently, but a taxi not too expensive.

Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer st has two elements I liked. Firstly a superb food hall, to get unusual / local / international specialities. Secondly a charming cosy wine bar and wine shop downstairs, which also serves light food.

I liked Against the grain pub at 11 Wexford St, for its diverse range of beers (national and international), cheap pub grub if you go early evening as well, but there is certainly better / fancier food in the city (but that wasn’t my focus when working there).

Temple bar area is popular, but honestly it’s mostly rather drunken, touristy and false. There are better bars for beers, better bars for music and less likely to encounter large groups who have drunk too much.

Sadly my favourite Italian enoteca (outside of Italy) shut not long after I finished working in Dublin. That would have been an easy recommendation.

Camden Kitchen was a personal favourite http://camdenkitchen.ie/. Cosy and with French/Spanish influenced bistro food. It was a place that felt cosy enough I was happy to dine there alone.

There was also a good Irish bistro nearby, but it seems to have changed names.

Good to see Neon is still therehttps://www.neon17.ie/ , a vibrant quirky place selling asian street food to be eaten at long communal tables (though there are some smaller tables around the edge). The food was very good, though be prepared for an intimate/vibrant and initially confusing setup. Michelin it ain’t, but it is a fun experience if you fancy that, with a quirky finish, as everyone gets a free ice-cream cone (and ice-cream) where you self serve yourself a ‘Mr whippy’ style ice-cream, with some more skilled than others!

Like I said, there are fancier places, and much will have changed since I was there.

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There are a few London dining threads. This is the most recent. London Dining - #40 by Adam_Frisch

I’m with you generally about long tasting menus, but Kitchen Table, The Ledbury, and Ikoyi are worth the calories and sitting that long. I’m a big fan of James Knappett at Kitchen Table and his former number 2 is now the chef at The Ledbury. Ikoyi is an African fusion restaurant and it as delicious as it is creative and different from other London higher end restaurants. Sandia Chang is the sommelier/co-owner of Kitchen Table; she and her list specialize in Champagne.

London is a great eating city, after being a horrible one for so long!

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Going in June! So tagging on

What are the best dining places in Dublin (wine agnostic)?

What are the best dining places wjth the best wine lists (best = good producers. Reasonable pricing)

Thanks!

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Retire and don’t come back?

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One final thought… any chance of flying out of Dublin (not back out of Heathrow)? These ‘open jaw’ flights help avoid wasted backtracking, and can make meaningful reductions to cruddy transfers, leaving more time for the real holiday.

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I’ll check with BA today. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for this and all of your advice.

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In Dublin, you can take the DART (suburban commuter rail) to Howth. Plenty of places to eat good seafood in Howth village, from tapas style places to Craby-JO’s (owned by Wrights, a top seafood purveyor) to King Sitric (they had a very nice cave, with a lot of reasonably priced wines, but i haven’t been in 7 or 8 years).
In the center of town, near Stephen’s Green, you could try Indo-Chine, Sprezzatura, Di Luca, Mister S, Delahunt, Dax or Floritz as all are well reviewed. I’ll be visiting the Burren myself next month, doing a horseback tour, while staying at Vaughan’s Anchor Inn, so I can give you feedback then on that place to eat (highly rated gastropub) as well as Gregan’s castle (probably not your speed as i think it’s a fixed menu, perhaps 3-4 courses though, and you wanted to get away from fixed menus i think).
Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, with its Victorian walled garden is worth a visit, if you are in the nabe.

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Warren, we spent a day in Dublin last summer and went to Trinity College. It was a fantastic experience and I would highly recommend it.

As far as London, the Churchill War Rooms Museum and The Tower of London were two stops that exceeded expectations.

Cheers!

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@Warren_Taranow , I second the Churchill War Rooms and their pristine bottle of ‘47 Pol Roger.

I would also highly recommend the special collection at the British Library - St Pancras. They have an astonishing array of manuscripts, ranging from the Magna Carta to Monty Python.

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Re: Galway - this past October, my wife and I had a really wonderful meal at Ruibin bar.

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I know a few of your proposed areas so here’s a few tips…

Lake District:
The destination food village is Cartmel. Chef Simon Rogan has several outlets there of which the flagship is Michelin 3 star L’Enclume. It’s tasting menu only but he also has Rogan & Co with a good ALC menu in the village. The village also has a great cheese shop and a wine-barn.

I haven’t been, but the other place I know is highly rated is The Samling in Windermere.

The walking is spectacular but in October you could be really lucky with the weather or terribly unlucky! Wet weather options in the Lakes aren’t amazing and you might want to have a think about what you’ll do if it’s continuous heavy rain. Liverpool and Manchester aren’t so far away.

Bath:
Lovely place. The Roman Bath House & Museum and the Pump Rooms for afternoon tea are both worth doing. It’s the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen this year and Bath will be doing lots of events so worth keeping an eye out. There are some quirky small museums a bit more off the tourist main track - the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in a converted house is good if astronomy/how people used to live is your thing.
Food-wise, we had good meals at La Terra (Italian) and at a vegetarian place called Oak.

If your itinerary does bring you back to near Heathrow then Windsor is a good spot. Yes, it’s tourist heavy but the castle is impressive. It’s not far from Runnymede - you mentioned Magna Carta above and you could go and see the field where King John & the barons met to sign it. Equally, Heathrow is not far from central London and if you have a few days in hand there’s far more to do in London than in Windsor.

Hope this helps a bit.

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L’Enclune is excellent and Cartmel is pretty (with a great cheese shop), but although on the edge of the Lake District National Park, it is not within the centre of the Lake District and therefore not, I think, a good place to stay, although dining at L’Enclune on the way to the lakes is something we have done a few times.
Staying in Windermere or Ambleside will put you in the middle of the lakes and hiking trails, with some very good food options close by. Look at these as possibilities for fine dining.
Windermere - Source at the Gilpin Hotel and Henrock ( a Simon Rogan restaurant)
Ambleside - The Old Stamp House
Keswick - The Cottage in the Wood
There are lots of other good restaurants and pubs.
The hiking is excellent, and varied. Beware, some of the hiking is very uphill and somewhat challenging so plan for your abilities and comfort zone. There are some excellent 5-10 mile hikes which are beautiful without being too technical, such as the route that takes you across Lake Windermere to the west shore and then north along the lake to Wray Castle and then to Hawkshead. From there you can bus back to Windermere. I mention this only as an example of many comfortable half and full day hikes. There are a lot of online resources to research and plan hiking in the area. Beware that the weather can be cold and rainy, even in June and make sure to pack lightweight raingear.

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I’m going in mid April. My 8 year old really wanted to go so I’m taking the family.
Will take the train and show him Paris as well.
Any restaurants for wine lists that are not the usual mark up as you see in the States where you can bring a kid too?
I take it BYO is not much of a thing in London or Paris as it is what I essentially do for all restaurants these days.

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Peter
Sorry, I don’t have specific restaurant recommendations for kids, but here’s a heads-up: don’t let your 8-year-old order a burger in Paris. I have memories of seeing the shocked faces of children from Germany and the U.S. when they’re served the Parisian version—essentially a plate of raw meat on a bun.
Cheers,
Warren

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Warren, just got back from Ireland today. We were 2 days up in Donegal but probably too far north for you on this trip. Spectacular remote beaches and coastline. Fantastic seafood bar up in Downings (Fisk Seafood Bar). Stayed at airbnb attached to oldest pub in north, the Olde Glen Bar, with a restaurant operated by Chef Ciarán Sweeney, voted best gastropub in the North of Ireland. Huge meal there though … ostensibly a starter/main/dessert but there were maybe 4 extra little amuses sent out, so a lot of great food.
For your trip, near Cliffs of Moher is village of Liscannor, near Lahinch beach. Vaughan’s Anchor Inn is where we stayed - small family owned hotel, and restaurant was voted best gastropub in the West of Ireland. Excellent fish. Nice wine list. Lovely people. Good pint of guinness. Nice hearty breakfast. Chef sent out a little butternut squash soup to start and then we had a tuna tartare as well as an artichoke risotto. Delicious. Main course was Monkfish, and Halibut. Fab. To accompany we had a 2019 Meursault from Martenot. Worked very well with fish courses.
We also ate at Gregan’s castle. 3 fixed courses, with several amuse bouches. Won’t be too long or heavy to eat. Food was very good. Had Guinea Fowl and Halibut - preferred the fish but i felt it was let down by the hollandaise sauce … fish was perfectly cooked but too much sauce and too heavy. Personal choice. We had an Aline Beaune Montagny 1er cru with it, and it was delicious.
We didn’t stay at Gregans but loved the feel of it, and would consider staying there on another visit. Just a wonderful cosy country house hotel, beautifully decorated and situated with a great bar, friendly staff, and the food is outstanding. They have a separate bar menu so the Prix Fixe fine dining is not the only option, and Ballyvaughan is a few miles away (edit: Wild Honey is closed now) and the hotel has a minibus to run you over. From the garden of Gregans Castle you can see across Galway Bay. And coming from Lisdoonvarna, you drive down corkscrew hill with multiple hairpin turns and twists, so it’s like being at Laguna Seca :slight_smile: Lovely spot.

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Wow, Karl, that’s fantastic. I think we’d stay at Vaughan’s Anchor Inn and eat there as well as Gregan’s Castle, rather than stay at Gregan’s Castle, unless you’d recommend otherwise.

Thanks!!!

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Warren, it really comes down to what sort of place you want … Vaughan’s is a relatively simple but comfortable inn, and rates were (March, this past week so low season) $370 for 2 nights, so $185 per night. There was one or 2 other irish couples staying there. Gregan’s is more upscale and rates will run you close to $400 per night for B+B. At the restaurant, I was the only irish voice i heard … 6 other tables at dinner and i think they were all american. Bar is perfect … a series of separate seating areas with couches … very cozy and private. I might go there as a treat for 2 nights but it would depend on where else i was staying on my trip … nice to mix and match between cozy and a little luxe :slight_smile:

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In Dublin highly recommend Kilmainham Gaol. A lot of interesting Irish history and the relationship with England. As a family it made an impression on each of us, perhaps more so because my family originates from England where as my husband is 100% Irish.

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Personally I’d spend very little time in Dublin, head out to the countryside, the ‘real’ Ireland. Cliffs of Moher is a great place to hang around and stay some nights (in Doolin). Do the hike, if you are able, it’s beautiful, almost entirely cliff’s edge, long but worthwhile. We loved staying at Fiddle and Bow, and it’s a one-street town, easy to walk to pubs and back.

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